What do women play?

Gambling has traditionally been considered a male occupation for many reasons.

But more and more women have jumped on the gambling bandwagon in recent years. So what kind of games do women like to put their money on? Is the way women gamble different from the way men gamble?

Women at the casino

For many years, gambling has been a hobby associated with men and not so much with women. Looking back, gender stereotypes meant that women did not have the access or the time to engage in gambling.

And if we go further back in time to the casinos and gambling halls that have become so popular, especially in the last 150 years, women have often played a minor role. There are certainly plenty of women in cocktail dresses and as waitresses in gambling halls. But around the poker table, it’s still mostly the men who hang around.

Women at the casino

For many years, gambling has been a hobby associated with men and not so much with women. Looking back, gender stereotypes meant that women did not have the access or the time to engage in gambling.

Are women taking fewer chances?

This, however, is changing at breakneck speed. Although fewer than one in 10 women still plays money games, more and more women are trying their hand at classic casino games such as poker, blackjack and baccarat – especially now that online gambling is available.

Here, you can choose your games and consider your moves at your leisure, and perhaps that’s something that appeals to women?

A motivating factor for women is the talented female poker players who have won international tournaments. In 2014, Dane Mette Louise Christiansen became the first woman to win an international poker tournament.

Part of what makes women good at poker is that they are less likely to take chances than men – at least if you ask successful female poker player Victoria Coren. Because women aren’t as impulsive as men, it makes them more successful in the long run, the star believes.

Whether that’s true is probably hard to gauge, and many women would probably say they’re just as adrenaline-driven as their male gambling counterparts. But what if you look at the figures for how much women gamble compared to men?

Bingo is a hit with women

Yes, the numbers speak for themselves. Although gambling has become more popular with women than ever before, men still gamble more than women. Although 50% of women and 52% of men gamble online, men generally gamble more once they get started – and they also visit physical gambling halls far more often.

If we look at very young gamblers aged 12-17, it is clear that boys gamble the most – and they like to do it online. According to the Centre for Youth Research, 82.6% of young people who have ever gambled on the Internet are boys, while just 17.4% are girls. So what kind of games are those 17.4 percent girls into?

While boys tend to opt for the more exciting games like poker or sports matches, girls are typically more into social games with universes they can empathize with. For example, 34% of women buy scratch cards, while only 28% of men do. In contrast, men are much more hooked on betting than women are, with 19% of men betting and only 2% of women.

“Our gender determines our behaviour. Psychologists and anthropologists are researching this, and we can see that when it comes to participation in gambling, gender also plays a role. So games get under our skin. They strike a chord in our psyche that helps shape our identity,” concludes the Centre for Youth Research.

The good old, cozy game of bingo, on the other hand, is a hit with women. This is perhaps not surprising, given that this game has traditionally attracted women. The only difference is that now they typically sit at home and play online, whereas before, they made the trip down to the local bingo hall.